Mexican Funerary Masks Travel to France for Exhibition at the Pinacothèque de Paris

The sculpted head of K'inich Ajaw. Photo: INAH/H. Montano.

MEXICO CITY.- After its successful presentation at the National Anthropology Museum, the exhibition Rostros de la divinidad. Los mosaicos mayas de piedra verde (Faces of Divinity. Greenstone Maya Mosaics) will travel to Paris, France, where the exhibition will be shown starting this February. The exhibition will present five funerary objects that were buried over a thousand years ago, for five Maya dignitaries, along with 12 jade funerary masks and a pectoral shell.

Both nations have prepared this exhibition to celebrate "The Year of Mexico in France". The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) will mount this international exhibition at the Pinacotheque de Paris.

Alfonso de Maria y Campos, INAH general director, said that the exhibition will be part of a series of exhibitions that will be admired by the Parisian public. "The scientific research of cultural treasures is accompanied by its disclosure for the knowledge and enjoyment of the Mexican people and the international public."

Faces of Divinity ... in 2010 was admired at the National Museum of Anthropology by over 185 000 persons, it consists of 131 Maya pieces, among which are masks discovered in Pre-Hispanic temples in the cities of Palenque, Calakmul , Oxkintok and Dzibanché . The exhibition also includes necklaces, rings, bracelets, bibs, and ceremonial figures, which were placed by the ancient Maya to accompany their rulers to Xibalba.

In the exhibition stands the recreation of the tomb of K'inich Janaab 'Pakal, who ruled the city of Palenque, Chiapas, between 615 and 683 AD and its entire funerary equipment and a digital reproduction of his tombstone, that you can see in detail.